NAIA Tournament Schedules | NAIA Release

KANSAS CITY, Mo. –  Vanguard earned the No. 3 seed in Santa Barbara Bracket as the NAIA on Thursday announced the 46-team field and pairings for the 2023 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round.

The Lions return to a familiar spot as top-seeded Westmont welcomes in three other teams for the five-team bracket – No. 2 seed Benedictine Mesa, No. 4 seed British Columbia and No. 5 seed Antelope Valley.

The opening round runs May 15-18 at Russell Carr Field. Three games will be played on Monday, beginning with British Columbia and Antelope Valley at 9:00 a.m. Vanguard and Benedictine Mesa will follow at 12:30 p.m. The host Warriors – both Golden State Athletic Conference regular season and tournament champions – will meet the winner of the first game between the Thunderbirds and the Pioneers at 4:00 p.m.

This is the ninth overall NAIA appearance in program history – and the third in a row. The Lions made previous appearances in 1985, 2002, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2021 and 2022. VU is 13-8 all-time in Opening Round play dating back to 2010. Overall, VU is 17-11 in opening round/regional action.

VU has made two trips to the NAIA World Series (1985, 2015).

The Lions enter the postseason 33-16 overall. They finished 15-9 in the GSAC for third place. VU went 0-2 in the GSAC Tournament, losing to Hope International and Arizona Christian.

Against teams in the Santa Barbara bracket, VU posted an 0-4 record. The Lions lost a midweek series game to Antelope Valley in early March, and dropped a three-game GSAC series to Westmont in Santa Barbara in mid-March. The Lions had late leads in two of those three games against the Warriors.